As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know. — Donald Rumsfeld, February 12 , 2002.

Monday, August 07, 2006

This is What Democracy Looks Like

Cindy Sheehan has resumed her peace protest in Crawford, Texas. While I have every sympathy for Ms. Sheehan, it's difficult for me to get behind what she is doing:

As Secret Service agents stood silently, Ms. Sheehan held up her California driver's license and said she wanted to meet with the president.

"It doesn't say my new address, but I do live here now," said Ms. Sheehan, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., and recently bought land in Crawford for war protests. "My name is Cindy and Bush killed my son."

The group then chanted, "This is what democracy looks like! This is what democracy sounds like!"

Or more like, this is what stalking looks like. But then something interesting happened:

As Ms. Sheehan spoke, saying "our hearts are connected," regardless of people's races, countries or religions, a man disrupted the service with loud questions and shouts of, "This is unpatriotic!" before the protesters asked him to leave.

Apparently in the universe that war protestors inhabit you have a right to protest, but not to protest the protest. I wonder whether someone protesting the protest of their protest would be permitted. But you see how quickly things would get too confused. Better just to stick to one side of things. That, after all, is what democracy looks like. Right?